County Commission reaffirms $1.5 million in sponsorship for April event
With the 2026 PGA Senior Championship at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton less than a month away, the Sarasota County commissioners have affirmed their $1.5-million commitment to sponsorship of that event.
The action came with a unanimous vote during the board’s regular meeting on March 3, which was held in Venice.
Erin Duggan, president and CEO of Visit Sarasota County, the county’s tourism marketing organization, reminded the board members at the outset of her March 3 remarks that, in June 2025, they offered not only their full support for The Concession’s bid to win the Senior Championship for 2026, 2027 and 2028, but they also agreed to providing $1.5 million for each year’s tournament.
“They were lucky enough to land a three-year [deal],” Duggan pointed out of The Concession.
The Concession is a private club in Manatee County, as noted on a slide that Duggan showed the commissioners last week. “The Senior Championship,” the slide pointed out, “is one of five major championships in men’s senior golf, and features the top senior golfers in the world.”
The 2026 event is set for April 16-19, as shown in another slide that Duggan referenced during her remarks. The potential player field includes “78 of the top PGA players over the age of 50 in the world,” it pointed out.
The slide added, “Past champions include Jack Nicklaus, Bernhard Langer, Lee Trevino, Tom Watson, and Steve Stricker.”
A Sarasota News Leader review of those who entered the 2025 PGA Senior Championships found the following among the participants at the Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md.: John Daly, Jay Haas, Padraig Harrington of Ireland, Davis Love III, Vijay Singh of Fiji, and Lee Westwood of England.
The event at The Concession will be broadcast live on NBC, with more than 12 hours of coverage planned, Duggan’s slide added. Other portions of the tournament will be shown on the Golf Channel and Peacock, the slide noted.
Further, the event is expected to generate six to eight weeks “of marketplace media impressions for the Sarasota-Bradenton area through PGA social media coverage,” the slide said.
The anticipated spending by visitors to the area, to attend the tournament, is between $30 million and $35 million, the slide added, crediting The Concession for those figures.
Last summer, when former Florida Senate President Bill Galvano, a Bradenton attorney, broached the sponsorship request to the County Commission, Duggan continued on March 3, board members talked of the potential business opportunities associated with the event, including Visit Sarasota County’s hosting representatives of major companies considering relocation and people who plan meetings for organizations and companies. Yet another slide Duggan showed the board noted that Visit Sarasota County will have access to a 12-person suite for the tournament that will situated on the 18th hole, as well as 20 general admission tickets per day over the four-day event, “to be used for VIP’s who can bring tourism and business to Sarasota County.” Duggan indicated that her organization plans to make the best possible use of those benefits of the Sarasota County Commission’s sponsorship.
Further, the slide said, Visit Sarasota County will have access to official press events “to maximize [the county’s] exposure as a tourism destination,” and a Sarasota County Visitor Information Van will be parked near the main spectator entrance.
After the event, Duggan told the board members, Visit Sarasota County staff will analyze the visitor data generated both by The Concession and by the Tallahassee firm that Visit Sarasota County contracts with for monthly and annual tourism data, Downs & St. Germain Research. That review will guide efforts in regard to the 2027 and 2028 tournaments at The Concession, Duggan said.
“This is an incredible, collaborative project .. that I know you’ve put lots and lots of hours [in],” Commissioner Teresa Mast told Duggan at the conclusion of the latter’s presentation.
“Thank you for the hard work on behalf of all of our citizens,” Mast added, noting, “I can’t wait to get those tax dollars in.”
Mast was referring to the county’s Tourist Development Tax, which is a 6% surcharge on rentals of accommodations — including hotel rooms — for six months or less time. (See the related article in this issue.)
Commissioner Tom Knight added that he recently was a guest of Visit Sarasota County at a Baltimore Orioles Spring Training baseball game in Sarasota, where he saw how much respect the tourism marketing team has earned over the years.”
Knight also said that he is aware that Visit Sarasota County has fewer employees than other tourism marketing organizations in the region. He called the Visit Sarasota County staff “small but mighty.”
Like Mast, Knight further noted that he was looking forward to the Tourist Development Tax money that the 2026 event will generate.
Even though the commissioners voted unanimously in June 2025 to provide the $4.5 million in sponsorship money for the three years of the PGA Senior Championship at The Concession, Commissioner Joe Neunder made a motion to affirm the $1.5 million for the 2026 event, and Mast seconded it. With no further board comments, the motion passed 5-0.
The money will come out of the Tourist Development Tax account used for promoting the county to visitors, a county staff memo made clear.